La Scala's new production of the traditional double bill "Cav" and "Pag" — Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" and Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" — was presented at BIG Cinemas Manhattan Theater on East 59th Street, near Second Avenue.

I haven't spoken to the team yet, and I don't know what 'Cav' [Isle of Man team-mate Mark Cavendish] is thinking, but we've discussed it with the coaching staff here and for me it's a question of, what's going to happen next.

He did just that and much else besides, and became both a teacher and a valued older friend to that lively mob; the great Humphrey Jennings was just one of the gang who gladly acknowledged his debt to "Cav".